If you are looking to promote your company or cause, product or service, then here’s one thing you most certainly won’t want to do: throw one fastball after another at the same list of media outlets.
The baseball metaphor is timeless because one of the indispensable ingredients in the success of any hard-throwing hurler is his ability to mix up hitters with “off-speed” stuff. A curve ball here, a slider there and then — bam! — the fastball suddenly seems to have that extra zip on it.
The 90 mph pitch seems like 100 mph and becomes virtually untouchable. Fail to develop those reliable alternatives, though, and soon batters will be able to time the fastball and start knocking the ball all over the park. In newsroom terms, that’s the equivalent of decision makers (reporters, editors, producers of one sort or another) knocking your news releases out of consideration.</span>
More specifically, your predictable self-serving pitch gets relegated, often in the blink of an eye, to the trash bin. And believe me, based on my 20 years as a reporter, it doesn’t take long to cement a reputation as a strictly “fastball pitcher.” That’s when the media develops an especially itchy “DELETE” finger.
Mix It Up Once in Awhile
So mix things up — become less predictable and thereby more effective for your organization: 
If you promote, say, dog food manufactured in one city, that doesn’t prevent you from submitting a colorful photo of a father-and-son flying a kite in a community in the next county to publications in and around that spot.
If you want a television station to pursue a profile on your environmental non-profit group’s 25th anniversary, you can still offer up a suggestion on the inspirational military veteran who lives two doors down from you. Starting a unique high-tech business in January?
That doesn’t preclude you from thinking about a great romantic story about the couple who are celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary right before Valentine’s Day.
Be Willing to Do the Little Things
For unimaginative, and unrealistic, PR types, each of these scenarios represents a “curveball.” In the past, when I have championed this approach in workshops and one-on-one interactions, a certain uncomprehending glaze washes over their faces. Even though some might murmur half-hearted agreement with this tack, they remain blind to the connection between selfless suggestions and lasting public relations and media relations success.
What this approach requires, of course, is the investment of time in activities that don’t hold the guarantee of immediate return on investment. It’s about doing the little things that, when added up, amount to much: figuring out the contact information for an editor you have never contacted before, navigating a website so you can upload a photo or two without any PR strings attached.
One piece of good news here is that we’re not talking about neglecting your usual PR and marketing efforts. But then there’s this bit of really great news: this approach is just time-consuming and seemingly unrewarding enough to be practiced by precious few. As a result, you will face little competition. And over time, as you build deeper and stronger relationships with decision-makers whom you want to influence, you will reap even better results for your clients.
This column first appeared in a December 2013 edition of Bulldog Reporter.
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